A Day At Hogsmeade
by Nerdatlas5
Summary: What is supposed to be a average trip to Hogsmeade becomes not-so-average for 5th year Neville Longbottom
1. Chapter 1

"Seamus! Dean! Wait for me!" I shout. I don't want to offend anyone by pushing my way through, so I try to walk around as carefully as possible. If this was last year, I wouldn't even have called out to them. I would have just walked on my own. A lot changes in a year I guess.

They wait for and I catch up to them. But once I do, Dean is already inching away from us.

"Sorry Neville. Got a date today," he says. He's staring off in the distance and smoothing his hair down, though he doesn't have much hair to begin with. Nervous habit, I suppose.

I look in the same direction as him to see who it is this time. Since the school year started he has been infinitely more interested in girls. He's been through ten of them to date. Well, technically eight. He was off and on again with Padma for a while. Or was it Parvati?

I finally notice Hannah Abbott waiting by the gate that leads out to Hogsmeade. She's looking around nervously, so I think she hasn't seen us yet. As Dean leaves, Seamus wraps his arm around my shoulder.

"Now why can't we get a date Neville?" He asks. Then he shouts "It's not like Dean's more attractive than us!" at Dean's back. Dean flips him off before greeting Hannah.

I shrug, but I can name a few reasons why girls won't date me. I'm a wimp, I dull people with my fascination with plants, my personality…

Seamus turns to me again. "I wouldn't even mind of the girl's ugly," he says. "I just want one that breathes."

Someone else comes up to my other side and wraps their arm around my shoulder too.

"Oi! I've got the perfect girl for you Seamus. Her name's Fluffy; perfect match for you. You can snog three heads for the price of one!" Ginny says at my right.

Seamus rolls his eyes. Ginny starts looking for Dean.

"Don't bother," I say.

She nods. "Who is it this time?"

"Hannah," I answer.

"Really? She's kind of quiet for him, don't you think?"

I shrug.

We leave Hogwarts, and Seamus and Ginny begin to sandwich me between their gossip, at least until the crowd thins. I don't want to listen, so I just drown out their words and listen to the students around us, at least for the time being. We slow down so others can pass us, until we're the only ones left on the road. Once alone, Ginny changes the subject.

"So what do you think of this week's lesson?" Ginny asks.

"It was amazing! And I can't wait to learn the Patronus charm next! I can already imagine the people I'll serve a can of whoop-ass too," Seamus says.

Ginny grins. "Who's on the hit list now?"

"Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle," Seamus starts.

"Pansy," Ginny adds.

"The entire Slytherin house!" Seamus shouts, throwing his arms wide for emphasis.

Ginny laughs.

"Umbridge," I say quietly. Just like usual, I've killed the mood. They both know what happened. Hell, Seamus was there!

After a moment of silence, Seamus speaks again, though more somberly than before.

"She'll be first on the hit list, I guarantee that," he lightly jokes.

I shrug. I doubt anyone will do anything about it.

"Neville, don't just shrug it off!" Ginny stops walking. "She is… a despicable… _evil_ woman! She had no right to say that to you, and in the middle of class of all places…"

"It doesn't matter whether she had the right to or not, it's still true no matter who says it!" a say sharply. I don't want any sympathy.

I raise my voice.

"I'm an oaf and a coward, and everybody knows it! I couldn't even use stupefy correctly this week! You and Dean had to stay behind and make sure I regained consciousness! And now I'm expected to learn the Patronus charm? Not only am I too _stupid_ to get it right, my life has been one great big joke from the start, so I can hardly expect to have a happy memory to use in the first place!"

I can hear the blood pounding in my ears. Ginny and Seamus are just standing there, slack-jawed and wide eyed. Their probably appalled at me.

"It's not like I'll be brave enough to ever use these spells outside the Room of Requirement anyways. I'm a disgrace of a Gryffindor."

I throw my hands up in defeat. "I'm just done." Done with School. Done with Dumbledore's Army. Done with life.


	2. Chapter 2

I run past them before they can respond. I don't really care where I end up. Just as long as it's not here.

The snow is falling hard and fast now. I stop, look around. Either they didn't follow me or got lost trying.

I'm breathing heavily and it's not just the running that's done it. I can feel the rage that overcame me moments ago fade to nothing. All that's left now is uselessness.

I'm closer to Hogsmeade now. The lights twinkle and I can almost hear the other students' laughter. I don't really want to listen to someone else's joy right now, so I should just head back and mope in the Gryffindor dormitory…

But someone is laughing. There's someone nearby.

I look around and to my left, in between me and Hogsmeade, are four figures disguised by the falling snow. One is kneeling in the snow while the others stand around it. Their all well bundled up, but I can see a mess of blond hair spilling out from the kneeling one's hat; it's Luna.

As soon as I notice this, I hear her sing-songy voice. They're closer than I thought they were. And, I realize with dread, Luna's sounding a bit less sing-songy than usual.

"I won't let you hurt him." For the first time since I've met her, she sounds mad. Or at least annoyed. She appears calm when she says this, but she is shaking just slightly. "Let me go," she demands quietly.

I hear laughing again. It scratches at my brain like knives on a plate. S***: it's Pansy of all people. Her Inquisitorial Squad badge was on over her coat.

"I'm sorry _Loony_, but you broke the rules. I'll have to take you to Umbridge."

I can feel my anger building up again at the sound of Umbridge's name.

"Hey!"

They look around, confused. I am too. Who said that?

"Oi! Leave her alone!"

S***. It's me! What am I doing?

Pansy and her thugs lock eyes with me. She cackles. She really is an ugly person.

"Ha! It's wee Longbottom! Run along now so you don't get hurt too!" She cackles, and the thugs join her.

I should just go away. I'll only make things worse. I turn to go, shaking my head at myself. I'm such an idiot.

"Go on like the coward you are," Pansy says to my back.

That set me off. I didn't even realize I had my wand in my hand until I had raised it.

Pansy starts to screech a curse at me, and I panic. I'm no good at fights! I quick snatch at the first word that comes to mind.

"_**Stupify**_!" I close my eyes and hope this ends as painlessly as possible.

And nothing happens. I take a deep breath and open my eyes again.

Pansy was laying in the snow a couple of yards away. I hope she's dea- no, I take that back.

The two thugs are quaking in their boots. Even though they are both quite taller than me, they seem so much smaller right now.

Oh. I still have my wand pointed at them. That explains it.

I feel like I've woken up from a crazy dream. I'm exhausted, and if these two come at me, I'm as sure as dead.

So I fake a threatening step forward. It's not like it's going to make things worse than they already are.

I feel like my usual wimpy self, but whatever had come over me before was frightening enough to send them running.

Once I'm sure they're gone, I go to check on Luna. She was still on the ground, with the same dream-like stupor that she had when I first met her. I can't believe that was only months ago.

"A-are you alright?" I manage to stutter. "Why were they picking on you this time?" I offer my hand and pull her up.

She slowly opens her coat a little. She looked like she was waking up from a dream too. Inside the coat a small baby niffler lay, undisturbed by the chaos that it had caused.

"Umbridge would have thrown him in the Forbidden Forest, even though he wouldn't have survived the winter alone."

"So you took it –I mean- him?"

She nodded.

There's something about a life threatening situation (alright, _almost_ life threatening) that makes smaller issues seem silly. So I couldn't help. I start to laugh uncontrollably. I need to lean on Luna or else I'll fall into the snow. She doesn't seem disturbed by my reaction.

"You… are a lot… like Hagrid… you know that?" I manage to say in between fits of laughter.

"You're a lot braver than you think yourself to be, you know that?" Luna says back. She buttons up the coat, hiding the niffler again.

I stop laughing. "You can't possibly believe that."

She shrugs.

"You… you really think so?"

She nods excitedly.

"What were you doing here anyway Neville?" she asks.

I sigh and run my hand through my hair. Unlike Dean I have enough hair to do that. Should I tell Luna?

It seems only fair I suppose, since she showed me the niffler.

So I tell her about the last DA lesson, even though she was there, and then about Umbridge's insults and the fight with Seamus and Ginny. Without meaning to, I also tell her about my experience with bullying in general, ever since Malfoy took my rememberall in our first broom-riding lesson.

I don't think I've ever spoken to her this much before. I've given her a brief hello during Dumbledore's Army, but never outside of that. I had always felt too embarrassed by her. Yet here we are, telling each other our problems like we've known each other forever.

I didn't realize it right away, but we have entered Hogsmeade.

"You know Neville, friends tend to fill in the missing pieces we have," she says.

"What?" Where did that come from? Luna seems to speak in half-finished metaphors. She sounds like she's unto something, but I can't quite understand what.

We stop outside the Three Broomsticks. When I open the door I'm assaulted by the sound of glasses clinking and stories being told. But above all of that was the very loud voice of Ginny.

"…and he ran off! I had no idea he thought that way about himself! We've been looking for him this entire time, yeah. I hope hasn't done anything stupid or…"

She's with Seamus and Dean by the fireplace. Hannah has already ditched Dean for some Hufflepuffs, probably happened when Ginny and Seamus had come in.

Oddly enough, I feel a surge of confidence go through me. With Luna following behind me, I walk over to them.

"You're not talking about eh guy who single-handedly took on three Slytherins and won, are you?" I ask.

They all jump and stare at me. Ginny is the most shocked.

**Slap!**

"YOU BLEEDING IDIOT!"

My face stings like hell!

Everyone is staring at us. Luna waves to them, and Ginny lowers her voice.

"I thought you were ready to pitch yourself into the Whomping Willow! What were you thinking?"

I was thinking that no one cared that much about me.

"I-I-I wasn't," I stammered. She sapped the confidence right out of me.

"Yeah, you bloody hell weren't!"

We all fell silent.

"So… What was that about kicking Slytherin's a**?" Seamus asks me.

I order two butterbeer, one for me and one for Luna, then begin to tell what happened. I decline to mention the niffler, but no one notices. Luna gets picked on all the time by Pansy. There doesn't need to be a reason for her. Luna interjects here and there with some random thoughts as I speak. I'm sure if she could explain it well, it would make perfect sense, so I don't stop her. I no longer feel that embarrassed by her anymore.

I finish talking, and then glance around. Turns out I drew a crowd in. Everyone was silent, looking over at us. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had joined our group at some point. Fred and George were up on the second level with one of their extendable ears, and another large crowd had gathered around them. Even the bartender and Professor Sprout were listening at the counter, though they pretended not to.

Dean and Seamus start clapping. Soon the entire room is applauding. I fell my face go red. Is it noticeable?

"That was bloody brilliant Neville! Didn't know you had it in you!" Ron exclaims.

Hermione looked reluctant to praise. "You could be in a huge amount of trouble Neville," she says harshly. But she smiles as she says it, so she can't be too cross. She is right though, I'm certain cursing a member of the Inquisitorial Squad is against some decree Umbridge had made.

Hey! I broke a decree! I wonder what Grandma would think.

"Oi Neville! This one's own the house!" either Fred or George shouts. He drops a nosebleed nougat into my lap. "Don't expect more!" the other twin shouts.

Everyone is talking excitedly and enjoying themselves, and the Three Broomsticks is once again full of talk and spilt butterbeer, perhaps more so now. I guess news of a blow to anything related to Umbridge is good news to everyone. Plus, everyone hates Pansy.

Even when we all have to leave, the mood doesn't fade. I walk back with Dean Seamus, Ginny, Luna, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Pansy and her goons were waiting when we get back to Hogwarts. They look like they were about to do something, but decided against it. She's soaked and shivering, and gives me an evil glare as we pass.

I half expect Umbridge to be waiting for me with a detention and some torture ready. But she never does show up. I've heard a rumor that Pansy refused to report me because she's humiliated by being beaten by "a coward".

I walk into the next DA meeting with a spring in my step. I'm absolutely certain I'll get the Patronus charm right now.


End file.
